The Democratic States of Apricot Tree is a colossal, efficient nation, renowned for its ubiquitous missile silos, irreverence towards religion, and stringent health and safety legislation. The hard-nosed, cynical, humorless population of 3.242 billion Apricot Treeans are kept under strict control by the oppressive government, which measures its success by the nation's GDP and refers to individual citizens as "human resources."

The enormous, corrupt government juggles the competing demands of Administration, Defense, and Law & Order. The average income tax rate is 72.8%.

The powerhouse Apricot Treean economy, worth 228 trillion Golds a year, is highly specialized and mostly made up of the Arms Manufacturing industry, with significant contributions from Information Technology. Black market activity is rampant. Average income is 70,426 Golds, with the richest citizens earning 5.3 times as much as the poorest.

Traveller camps regularly block five-lane superhighways, the armed forces are locked in an expensive and bloody war abroad to stamp out possible terrorists, the smell of tobacco is often smelt around legislative buildings across the nation, and the best defense is a good fence. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to the all-pervasive police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Apricot Tree's national animal is the Akita, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to widespread deforestation.

Apricot Tree is ranked 287,303^rd in the world and 5,868^th in eta for Least Corrupt Governments, with 61.76 percentage of bribes refused.